Friday, 30 March 2007

Congratulations to Greg who handed in all 298 pages of his PhD thesis today! I am affraid Phil that you will have to give up your status of "Dr Phil" as the soon to be Dr G has earned his title. Greg, I am seriously impressed, the first of our friends to hand in their Phd! xAl

Saturday, 24 March 2007

Matthew Hayden's mother is so fat, she can't see her past her gut to witness her son moer and klap and murder South African bowlers in St Kitts. No matter, the point here is that she's a heifer. Not that we are so fucking useless.

Thursday, 22 March 2007

Tuesday, 20 March 2007

Well I thought it was about time that I started a food / recipe / restaurant review blog. The original idea having been sparked by Kezza asking for a recipe or two. So, welcome to the global soup kitchen www.theglobalsoupkitchen.com. If you want to post just email me and I will send you an invitation.

Oh blog master Greg, please could you add it as a link to the general one?? Thanks.

Monday, 19 March 2007

Despite denying the link between HIV and AIDS, his opposition-baiting, his poorly disguised hatred for the media and think-tanks, and his serious denting of the prospects for continued moderate leadership in SA by completely alienating and angering a large chunk of the ruling alliance and its supporters, I'm a bit of an Mbeki fan. With Trevor Manuel, his economics has been pretty sound - SA hasn't had it this good since the 1970s.

But he's played the race card quite a bit over the years; it's always pissed me off. He's done it again on the crime issue (and not for the first time on this issue), but this time I feel he's gone too far.

He begins with all sorts of legitimate evidence of continued white racism in SA. No-one can object; large chunks of whites in this country are a lost cause on the whole Rainbow Nation dream.

In a sub-section entitled "The Challenge of White Fears", he quotes Nelson Mandela as saying "The fear-factor has long been a feature of white politics in our country. For long periods, this section of our population has been subjected to the unimaginable terrors of 'die swart gevaar' and 'die rooi gevaar', the 'black' and 'red' dangers (communism in case you wondering who the red people are!)... The danger of an imaginary one-party state that is now being used to frighten our electorate is nothing but a variation on the same theme. The 'gevaar' is cloaked in different words. It remains the same 'gevaar' nevertheless."

Again, there can be no complaints - this IS an accurate portrayal of much of the narrow-minded white POLITICS in SA. But it pertains to POLITICS, and isn't necessarily generalisable. This is important.

Because later on he invokes the same argument in an attempt to redefine reality - one in which crime in SA is not a serious problem. "The matter we seek to discuss, in the context of the struggle to create a non-racial society, is what Nelson Mandela identified as the phenomenon of the re-emergence of the prophets of doom, who 'spread messages about...rampant and uncontrollable crime', conducting 'a massive propaganda campaign...on the issue of crime, in many instances without any regard and respect for the truth.' The question to ask is - why did this happen then, and why does it continue to happen now?"

He goes further: "With regard to the foregoing, the fact of the matter is that we still have a significant proportion of people among the white minority, but by no means everybody who is white (thanks guy!), that continues to live in fear of the black, and especially African majority. For this section of our population, that does not 'find it too difficult to revert to the accustomed world of fear of the future', every reported incident of crime communicates the frightening and expected message that - the kaffirs are coming!

"The colleague in government to whom I referred, Mr A, posed the rhetorical question - why are the Whites so determined to frighten themselves! The answer of course is that they have taken no such decision. Rather, the problem is that entrenched racism dictates that justification must be found for the persisting white fears of 'die swart gevaar'.

"All incidents of crime, preferably broadcast as loudly as possible, provide such justification, as have other issues, such as those mentioned by Nelson Mandela in 1997, and as the impending victory of the ANC in 2004 was used to incite white fears that our movement was about to establish a one-party state!"

Simplified: because some whites are hardened racists, and many of them are opposition politicians, the crime problem is severely overblown (presumably by a sympathetic, racist media (excluding the SABC of course)).

This may be true of POLITICS, Mr Mbeki, and of PERCEPTIONS on both sides of the racial divide (that you are trying so very hard to entrench).

But it has FUCK ALL to do with daily experiences in South Africa. Any enlightened South African, white racist or not, knows full well that crime in predominantly black townships and informal settlements is far worse than any crime will ever be in white suburbs. Which is exactly the point you should be focusing on as President of this country: crime is non-racial, is a serious problem, and affects everyone (directly or indirectly).

Catch a wake-up Mr President. Conflating crime and opposition politics with this sort of propaganda will only take SA further away from Madiba's dream.

Looking forward, the collateral damage from this neanderthal attitude may include JZ getting the presidency. He's already picking up on Mbeki's ivory tower approach, having recently visited (white) families affected by crime. Pure politics, and it may well work. But I hesitate to suggest this may be scary or undesirable, because that will mean I am a white racist too. Nice one Mr Mbeki!

Sunday, 18 March 2007

Those who have been waiting patiently for another SMR but do not check the blog often will notice that we have jumped straight from #1 to #3. Well, that's not entirely true. I did do a Shitty Music Retrospective #2 about Eiffel 65 who sang that song "I'm Blue", but Phil said the post was crap, and i deleted it, forever losing it in the ether. Not to worry though, this installment will be a cracker...

Billy Ray Cyrus :

"Achy Breaky Heart" made a lot of ears bleed all over the world, and while he is a bit of an easy target, he is in no way undeserving of being singled out as a shit-music-monger and all-round dickhead.

What bothers me most about Billy Ray is not so much his godawful music, but the fact that he started a trend, or set a standard for male country singers with sub standard singing and writing ability, and only just above average looks. Ever seen pictures of Nicole Kidmans new (druggie midget) husband Keith Urban? Yeah, that's what i thought! Fucking identical! And Keith Urban is Australian, which makes his adoption of a US country music persona all the more vile, but lets not get carried away with Keith. Billy Ray is the real criminal here, and it seems he has not learned his lesson... Billy Ray will soon be releasing (or has already released) a new album of country tunes (that all sound the same - for a change) called... "wanna be your Joe". Seriously. I think what Billy is trying to say is, he wants to be your John, he wants to play whatever tone deaf country fans want to hear, and he wants you to pay him for it. Well, with songs like "I want my mullet back" he can keep trying...

Billy Ray Cyrus Factoid : Billy Ray Cyrus sits down to pee.

True Story : I have never square danced, not even at the Std 5 Grove Barn Dance.

Friday, 16 March 2007

Wednesday, 14 March 2007

Hello All!Well I know I bent some ears earlier this year about my dream to go to South By Southwest and the opportunity that arose to film three SA bands who had been invited to showcase... Well most of you simply wanted to know "what the hell is SXSW?" So here is the link you have all been waiting for: http://2007.sxsw.com/music/sxswlive/

It starts today in Austin Texas and although one of the SA bands (Wild Eyes) had their visas refused - how much good viewing would that have made for my doc??!!! especially as they are threatending to bring violence down on their furniture ROCK N ROLL- the Skirts and Harris Tweed paid their immigration lawyers a small fortune and are there. I heard a sms from the Tweedies' manager read on R2000 this afternoon saying they'd arrived and had been doing interviews, attending workshops etc etc non stop but were getting "some great footage for the DVD" - so that makes me want to cry... But I am going to keep an eye on the site and watch the festival through the magic of the interweb! Ahh... there is always next year right? :) love,k

Sunday, 11 March 2007

This song is pretty feckin' cool (even if i was a little slow on the uptake...) BUT the video blows me away, for obvious reasons. Watch till the end Phil, that's if you can find a computer that will let you watch it... Simian Mobile Disco...

And while we are on the subject of cool music videos, another not so new one, but a killer video nonetheless... TV on the Radio...

Friday, 9 March 2007

Wednesday, 7 March 2007

Time for another post none of you care about. Doesn't seem to stop Grek, so why not eh? Last night marked another milestone in Liverpool's glorious history. We put the best team in Europe, and defending champions, out of the UEFA Champions League! I'm talking about Barcelona in case you aren't sure. So Livers are through to the quarter-finals. Awesome. Go youuuuuuuu REDS!

Tal and I saw this sign and we thought why bloody not! Charge it to your credit card, have fun, have another drink, go on an adventure, buy a new pair of shoes, save the world, stop living with guilt and the attitute of "I really shouldn't" because you will regret it later and because as the billboard says..."because you deserve it" and after all, all good advice comes from advertisers and life coaches...

Oh and I got my scholarship from the British Council (The Chevening Scholarship - All expenses paid - woo hoo!) confirmed yesterday (because I deserve it!) so Edinburgh here I come! I also entered the lottery yesterday, as I was having a good one, but clearly I didn't deserve $10 million yet...

Tuesday, 6 March 2007

Sorry this has taken me so incredibly long to do, but I have started at a new job with a fascist internet policy which doesn't allow me to log on to this site.So ... speaking of life changes and growing up, here are some pics of Brig and Jem's engagement party:

Monday, 5 March 2007

True story: my dad (who is also a dentist) once told me that there was a DJ playing in town who was a dentist, and this meant that dentists were cool. He knew because he read it in the newspaper. Said dentist was actually Ryan "the dentist" Dent, who is not actually a dentist, in case you were also fooled by his nickname.

I will attempt for a 3rd time to post my baby Liam news. I blame the blog and not my lack of technical expertise (-as I now work for an IT company so I can no longer plead ignorance. )Except that I did mange to lock myself out of my computer for the entire weekend.

ANYWAY..

Claud had a 3.3 kg healthy baby boy. To be named: Liam Christopher(after james' dad) Winhall. She suffered a bit thru the op as she wasn't quite 'out' and as a result was on a lot of morphine etc afterward (hence the slightly dopey stare..) But she is glowing and is recovering quickly. She had to stay in hospital for the weekend but should be back home today.

James is a nappy changing expert. Liam has located the nipple and is feeding well (i didn';t realise but it takes some time before they master the art of feeding). the nurses say that he's th e most well behaved in the nursery at the moment, and he only cried when I/ Granny Annelise held him. Kath kept on repeating that she couldn't believe that now there is another person in the room. ( she said this at least 3 times) and on our visit on saturday we found claud, james and liam all in the one hospital bed watching the rugby!

What I've been trying to say (for the past 72 hours) is that its been a very emotional time. To be present at (4 hours after ) the birth of someone close to you is truly a humbling experience. You can't quite begin to describe the emotions that one goes thru. And i wish that all of you could have been there, or rather to have an opportunity to experience that feeling soon, as it is so special.

So ya. i'm not saying lets all go out and make babies this week, rather welcome to baby Liam and let's not forget what is important to us in our lives.

- There are 33 days of racing (or throwing your money down the drain) available at Newbury Racecourse where you can mix with the celebrities of the racing world and maybe see Dick Francis or the Queen- There is an annual pancake race, where people dress up as pirates and run through the town flipping pancakes – sounds like fun… “Yo Ho Ho and off we run!”- Helen worked and lived in Newbury for a few years – I am afraid to admit that you are right, not much happens in Newbury, but…- Your Task: to be elected by your fans as the Mayor of Newbury, because according to the town council, you even though you are famous and would have an unfair advantage over the competition, you are eligible.

Ok, gonna make this quick so that i don't steal any blog page space from the bigger news (3.3 kg of big news). Someone post pictures please!

I have been following this guy DJ Eli Escobars blog for a few weeks now. Like most professional DJ's, hes in the process of digitising his vinyl music collection so that he can play all his old records with Serato, which is a clever technology that lets you play all your mp3s with two pieces of vinyl (too much to explain here, but you'll have to trust me, its clever...). anyway, the other day he posts this 80's track by some guys called When in Rome, or maybe they are called The Promise, either way. I'd never heard of them before, and i listen to the track and...

BLAM BLAM! i'm totally into 80's electronic music again. PWOOOP! You can download the track here . Its a pleasure! Does anyone want to sponsor my ticket to see Pet Shop Boys????

Then also, via the lords of apathy blog (funniest blog in the world, ever) check out TV on the Radio playing on Lettermans show... Killer bee...

T-minus 4 weeks till hand in day!! Best call the Thai girls and tell them to get the pina coladas cold and massage oil warm (just for my back! Phil, you're a sicko!).